An electrical outlet or wall socket generally includes a structure-mounted receptacle having a neutral slot and a hot slot in that receptacle. Some wall sockets also include a ground slot as well. These slots are electrically connected to suitable lead lines for phase, neutral and ground connections for connecting electrical equipment to a source of power. A plug generally includes blades that fit into the slots of the wall socket and, some plugs further include a grounding prong that fits into the wall socket ground slot.
Those skilled in the electrical arts have long recognized the dangers and undesirability of inserting an object, other than the suitable plug blades or prongs, into the slots of a wall socket. For this reason, the electrical field includes several designs for safety covers that are intended for semi-permanent attachment to a wall socket to temporarily disable that wall socket by covering the wall socket slots and preventing access thereto by any object A child-proofing cover is an example of such safety covers.
While somewhat successful in achieving their purposes, these safety covers still have drawbacks in several areas.
For example, many of the safety covers are fairly easy to remove once they are in position on the wall socket. Children often quickly learn how to remove the safety cover. Therefore, there is a need for a wall socket safety cover that is "tamper proof" in that once in place, it cannot be easily removed by a child. However, the safety cover should be easy to remove by an authorized individual, such as an adult. Therefore, the requirement of being tamper proof should also include ease of authorized removal.
Another problem with present wall socket safety covers is the inability thereof to adapt to various wall socket configurations. In the event that the wall socket is designed for some special purpose and may have a non-standard configuration of slots, present wall socket safety covers may not be able to cover all unused socket access slots. For example, if the slots are clustered instead of being oriented in line with each other, present safety covers may not be useful. Therefore, there is a need for a wall socket safety cover that is amenable for use in conjunction with a wide variety of wall socket slot configurations, and in conjunction with non-standard wall socket slot arrangements.
Still further, many present wall socket safety covers may be expensive to manufacture, and still are not strong enough to withstand prying or tampering. For example, many present wall socket safety covers have some area of weakness that will break if a child inserts an object between the cover and the wall socket and pries the cover upwardly away from the wall socket. This weak area may give, freeing the wall socket safety cover and providing access to the wall socket slots. Therefore, there is a need for a wall socket safety cover that is not easily pried out of a wall socket slot covering position on the wall socket. On the other hand, such wall socket safety cover should not be so difficult to manufacture as to be too expensive to sell.
Still further, there has been an ever-increasing use of computers and computer-related equipment in the marketplace and at home. This equipment is often plugged into standard NEMA 5-15 or 5-20 duplex (two outlet) wall sockets. This leaves unused outlets in the wall socket. In addition, line conditioners, surge suppressors, outlet strips and UPS's often have unused outlets. When devices that generate electrical impulses (spikes) and noise are plugged into the unused slot, damage, distortion and disruption of operation of the electrical equipment can occur, or the circuit may be overloaded.
Such unused outlets should be covered in a manner that prevents use of the unused outlet for a device that may create such unwanted spikes, surges or transients in the equipment plugged into the other outlet of the socket. Examples of such spike and transient- generating devices include copiers, vacuum cleaners, laser printers, space heaters, paper shredders and the like. Such devices should not be plugged into the same wall socket as a computer, a file server, a modem or the like as such devices may generate a voltage transient or spike that may be undesirably passed to the computer or the like. Therefore, there is a need for a safety cover for a wall socket that can be used in a wall socket that is supporting a computer or computer-related equipment, or other equipment that may be sensitive to electrical surges or transients.